i_assist Superfriends [Max and Jake]
Who- Max and Jake What- Talking on the walk home from school When- Backdated to before the trial
Max: The faster she got Short Round home, the faster she could go back to the bundles of wires she'd been playing around with in the Lair. The net and phone lines were up, and the power was more or less stable, now it was just a matter of connecting everything and then making sure that she could access what she needed. The system down there was paltry compared to Babs', but that was just for now. Max knew that it was going to improve. Just give her a few months, she'd see to it.
But babysitting duty was taking time out of her afternoon schedule. Babs' house wasn't exactly close to the Institute's campus, being more in the residential area of the City. Babs wasn't free this week to drive Jake home directly after school and she'd told Max that there was no point in bothering Alfred for something that Max was perfectly capable of doing. At first the girl had thought that Babs had meant driving, and she would've been cool with that, but what Babs had meant was that she was to walk Jake home after school everyday.
Max knew better to argue, so she did as she was asked, but it ate away at ninety minutes of time after school when she could've been working with Kate at the Lair. She couldn't wait until this damn trial was over and Babs wouldn't be so busy anymore, at least that's what Max assumed Babs was working on. She was monitoring things, always on the phone or writing emails to someone. It just made Max more eager for her and Kate to get their own fledgling enterprise up and running.
Max turned, realising that in her musings she'd pulled ahead of Jake a little, so she stopped. She had a feeling that if she lost him, no one would be very happy with her. Least of all that guy he called his father. From what she'd seen, he looked kind of menacing. "C'mon Short Round. I know you've got homework that you can't wait to get home and do."
Why did she call him Short Round? Because Max had seen way too many 'old' movies since arriving in the city, and Short Round was so much more fun than Jake'. It was said with love, really!
Jake: Jake didn't bother walking faster. He was a champion walker, and once he'd settled into a pace, he could stay at that pace for hours. He had a feeling Max wouldn't be able to comprehend the number of miles he'd walked, yes, walked, in Roland's world. A hundred? A thousand? Neither would have surprised him.
Besides. He wasn't the one in a rush. He was looking for signs of the Beam. But his thoughts were being distracted by other things. Someone named Kate. Something called the Lair. And flashes of a cave somewhere, computer systems, and he wondered briefly if any of them were dipolar systems. Maybe not. They looked much more advanced than anything that had been hidden under the city of Lud.
"Why are you calling me that?" he said, slowly striding up to her. "My name's Jake. You know that."
Oy was trailing along beside him. The bumbler insisted on following him everywhere, like usual. He'd even stayed outside the school when he wasn't allowed in, waiting at the doors for Ake to come out again.
Max: "Because you're short." Hah, like she was really one to talk. Most people would have called five foot three short as well, but she still had a few inches on him. "And because pipsqueak is just mean," she said with a slight smirk. But it was a nice smirk. One she probably would have given to a little sibling if she'd had one.
"C'mon, we should at lease get into the neighborhood before the sun starts to set."
Jake: Jake glanced at the sky. "The sun's not going to set for another four hours at least. How anxious are you to get back to your little Lair?"
He didn't realize she hadn't spoken the words out loud until after he'd spoken.
Max: She'd been expecting more voicing of his annoyance at being called Short Round. Any number of things would have been more expected than what he actually said.
Max quickly twisted her look of slight shock into a deep scowl as she considered her options. There were really only two. Deny, deny, deny. Or admit everything.
It didn't take long to decide on which one to go with. "What're you talking about?"
Jake: Jake sighed. "Look, you don't have to deny it. You're thinking about it too much. What do you need all that equipment for anyway? It's like something out of a comic book. DC, Marvel, take your pick, but are you seriously considering it?"
He'd been thinking about that a lot the past few days, ever since his head had cleared enough to let him remember about Bruce Wayne and Batman. The things he remembered from his friend's old comic books. Lair. Batcave. Wayne. He needed to know how serious she was.
Max: Cue the blank stares. Some of it was real, just because she honestly had no idea what he was talking about when he said DC and Marvel. But mostly it was just to cover her ass. "Did you catch the insane bug again?"
He had some nerve, picking around her mind like that. She was so telling Babs. And as for now? If he persisted, then well, she officially had an over active imagination. That's all it was.
Jake: Jake rolled his eyes. "No, I'm not insane again. And I'm not picking around your brain. You're thinking of it so hard, I couldn't help but overhear." He looked down at his feet, watching Oy match his footfalls. "I didn't ask for it, you know. I can just do it."
Max: "Yeah, well stay out of my private fantasies, 'kay?" Max said, and immediately stopped trying to think about Kate, the Lair, and possibly codenames. Predictably, that didn't really work, but at least she was making the effort.
She'd said fantasy anyway. That's all it was as far as Jake had to know. Besides, who would really believe that some sort pink haired girl was going to try and lead a double life as a superhero? Especially when she'd almost died a few months back, proving that she wasn't exactly the kick ass type.
Jake: "Actually..." Jake hesitated, for just a moment. "If you're serious about it, I wanted to ask if I could join in."
He needed to do something. There was no Beam in this city. No Beam, no purpose. Not until ka placed him back on the road to the Tower. But something in him was telling him that his time on that road was done. That last death had been his last - was supposed to be his last. Keystone Earth. No one came back from there. That was the rule.
So being a juvenile vigilante seemed a good deal for a pre-teen gunslinger. At least he knew he could take it. He had the skills.
Max: She tried very hard not to laugh at Jake, not only because that would have been mean, but because it would have let him know that perhaps she really was serious about doing this.
Instead she bit down on her lip and stopped walking, because if she wasn't going to laugh she was certainly going to stare incredulously. "You? Are you... serious? Okay, like, even if I was... wow. No. Babs would kill me."
Jake: "Like she wouldn't kill you anyway for doing something like this on your own. At least I'm capable of taking care of myself. And I've been in fights before."
Credentials. Roland was right. They always wanted to see credentials. He stood a bit straighter.
"You don't think I can do it." It wasn't a question. It was clear. He didn't even need the Touch to know that.
Max: "First off, I'm not doing anything. Let's get that straight," She said as she watched him straighten up. She wouldn't have been surprised if he tried to puff his chest out as well. "Second, even if I was, I'm eighteen. You're, what... nine, ten?" Her conscience wouldn't even allow it. He wasn't even in his teens yet.
"Ten year olds do not go around as costumed vigilantes," Max said, quite sternly. The tone in her voice nearly scared her, but hey. Whatever worked.
Jake: Jake crossed his arms. "I'm eleven, and I've been in more fights in the past year than you've seen in your entire life. If you want to say that I'm not experienced, you want to try putting your money where your mouth is?"
Everything was a test. Life was the ultimate test. He'd lost enough to know how to win. No one at school had noticed the heavy sandalwood revolver he wore, tucked safely under his jacket in a neat docker's clutch. He didn't wear it in the house, keeping his promise to Babs. But the streets were another story. He still kept his plates in his bag. He felt naked without his weapons, it was as simple as that.
Max: "Eleven, that makes things so much better..." Max muttered, rolling her eyes. She could not believe this.
Maybe it would just be better to appease him, and then by the time they got home he'd have forgotten about the whole thing. And if he didn't then at least they could continue this in the privacy of the house. "Fine. You can get your plates out of your room when we get home, but you totally can't throw them in the house, and there's really no point anyway because nothing is going on."
Jake: "You want plates?" Jake dipped into his pack, hand moving fast enough to blur, and withdrew one of the titanium plates so quickly that it never even made a sound. "I've got a plate. All I need is a target. Anything you say."
A light smirk touched his lips. "Anything."
Max: "...you're bring weapons to school?" Forget the whole wanting to join in on the superhero business. This was much more pressing. Jake was bringing weapons to school. Max knew he was from a different plane of existence and everything, but had he never heard of school violence? School shootings?
Max shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose. Target practice was forgotten for the moment.
"You do know what's going to happen if you ever get caught in school with those, right?" she asked him. "So much freaking trouble."
Jake: "First, someone would have to find them. Second, they'd have to stop wondering why I brought dishes to school long enough to realize they have an edge."
Third, if there was a problem, they'd wonder about the gun first, not the plates. But of course, he didn't say that. Or even send it. She seemed too flustered already.
And no. He hadn't heard of school shootings, and he would have thought she was crazy if she brought it up.
"Are you stalling, or what?"
Max: "I am not stalling," she insisted, crossing her own arms. Maybe he was right on some counts, but that didn't change the fact that the plates were weapons, whether or not other people could tell what they were. You just weren't supposed to do that.
The little voice inside her head that insisted on piping up with 'you're not supposed to hack into school records either' needed to shut the hell up.
"That'd better be it too," Max went on. "Seriously, I just don't want you to get into trouble."
Jake: "You are too stalling. You also deny a lot. Is it one of those defense mechanisms? Deny first, rationalize later?"
Denial was a quick way to get in trouble. You dug yourself into a hole, and then when you needed help climbing out, you'd already told everyone who could help you that your feet were above ground. Either don't say anything at all, or be honest. If you were honest, you didn't have to try and remember anything.
"I'm not going to get caught with anything. That's because I'm not going to get into trouble at school. I wouldn't use a plate at school. But people have already tried to mug me on these streets, and that's where I needed them." Simple justification. Inside the school, he was a student, not a gunslinger. Students followed their own rules. Gunslingers were a law unto themselves.
"And you still haven't picked a target."
Max: Great, the eleven year old was also a budding psychologist. Max almost opened her mouth again to claim that no, she did not deny things all the time, but that would have just proved his point, wouldn't it?
Leave it to Babs to find the least normal eleven year old possible. What was it with this family, anyway? She was totally the only normal one.
"Just... I d'know. Hit that can on that garbage of over there." She wasn't really paying attention where she was pointing. She'd just picked the farthest thing she could so that Jake would miss and they could stop this conversation that was getting way too out of hand for her liking.
Jake: Jake glanced across the street where she was pointing. The metal can had a green and yellow sticker on it that proclaimed it was for 'RECYCLABLE REFUSE ONLY!'
"The garbage can. Okay. Which letter?"
He shrugged off his pack and put it on the ground beside him. Oy took a seat beside the pack to watch it.
Max: Max rolled her eyes again. He had to be kidding. "The last L," she said, aware that she sounded rather sarcastic. The L was the thinnest letter on the thing, there was no way this was going to go well. Thank God there was no one walking on the other side of the street.
"If you break some car's window I'm running and you are so getting hauled off to jail."
Jake: Jake shrugged. "Alright. Here's the bet. I make it, I'm in, no more questions or comments about my age. If I don't, then I'll stop asking about it, and I won't mention anything to anyone."
He held out a hand. "Do we have a deal?"
Max: "I can't just... I'd have to talk to Kate," she muttered very reluctantly. There, she hoped he was happy. He had his admission. She couldn't believe she had to admit this to an eleven year old. "I... okay. I can't promise it, 'cause I'd have to talk to Kate first. But, I can promise I'll talk to her."
Oh, her new friend was just going to love this.
Jake: Jake considered, then nodded. "Okay. That'll do."
He looked at the garbage can. He aimed with his eye, he threw with his mind, and he killed with his heart. He saw the path the plate would take, saw it fly through the air and slice through the L of "ONLY". He saw this all, and then he pulled back his arm and threw the plate.
It sailed across the street, silently cutting through the air, not whistling like the Riza plates of the Callah, and the L disappeared into blackness as the plate cut into it so cleanly, there was no trace of the letter. Only a black slice in the can, and a thud of metal when the plate imbedded into the thick siding of the dumpster behind the trash can.
Max: Max watched, not expecting much at all. He was a little stump of a kid, short legs, short arms... she hadn't been expecting him to actually make it.
But apparently that hadn't be a fair assessment at all, and she wondered if maybe she should have known that. Dick had been eleven once too, and give him a batarang and he probably would have made it too. Just because she couldn't...
Except now she was obligated to talk to Kate about letting Jake join in on their little franchise. And, okay, he'd made one good shot. Could he really...
"Okay, maybe you can," Max finally admitted grudgingly. She eyed the plate stuck in the dumpster. Damn.
And. He was a telepath. Telepaths were good, Kate couldn't possibly argue that logic, could she? Max still didn't feel amazing about letting Jake in on this, but at least he had that going for him. "You win, I guess. But this is like, totally a trial basis."
Jake: "I'm better with a gun. But I've had more practice with one of those."
He looked at her, allowing himself a grin. "I can do that every time."
It wasn't ego. It was fact. He was a gunslinger, an apprentice. Roland could have made that shot at twice the distance.
Max: That was all well and good, but Max had to give him a very stern look anyway as her 'Bat-family' values reared their head quite suddenly. She couldn't escape them even if she tried, that kept being proved to her over and over in this city.
"We don't use guns," she said very sternly, her face becoming rather stony and perhaps a little shadowy.
Jake: Jake raised an eyebrow. "You don't use guns? Everyone uses guns. Even the Lone Ranger uses guns. Bad guys use guns. What do you do when some joker pulls out his gun and holds it up to you, ready to fire?"
Pray to the devil that you're a hair faster than he is, the gunslinger's voice whispered in his mind. And beat him to the trigger.
Max: Her instantaneous response wanted to be 'batarangs', but she knew she couldn't say that, so she just gave him what she wanted to be an all knowing look and shrugged, "There're ways other than guns. We... I... I just don't like guns, okay? So we don't use them. We don't kill. It's key."
Jake: Part of Jake wanted to laugh. They didn't kill? He was about to wonder if they had a lot of repeat offenders, but decided against it.
He was also a bit amused that she didn't seem to think of the plates as lethal.
"Plates, then. No guns. But I'm not wearing some stupid costume."
Max: For someone who'd practically demanded a place on the team he sure did have some demands. "We all wear costumes, Short Round. It comes with the territory of 'costumed vigilante'." Max explained rather slowly, as if she was talking to someone who needed things spelled out for them.
"Secret identities are important. You can't let your two lives collide. Bad things tend to happen then." Like when that little kid had figured out Terry's identity, that had sucked all around.
Jake: Jake raised an eyebrow. "But no one knows who I am anyway. And if we run into anyone like me, it won't exactly stay a secret for long."
Like the things he was picking up now. Batarangs? Bruce Wayne? Hell, all they needed was someone who came from Jake's world to hear that name, and they would immediately know about the family Max and the others were trying so hard to protect.
Max: "People at school know who you are, your teachers, your friends... you do know friends, right?" She raised an eyebrow of her own. You just couldn't be a vigilante without some sort of mask, and if he joined up with them then that's what he'd be. A vigilante. A target.
"Chances are we're not gonna run into a lot of telepaths. Moreso psychopaths, who if they figure out who you are will hunt you down and try to kill you," she said seriously. Her mind was on Jack now. Jack, who definitely would try something like that. Hell, she knew that if he escaped jail after this trial... she was dead meat.
Max shuddered just a little.
Jake: "I don't have many friends," Jake was forced to admit. He had a ka-tet. They were all that mattered. And they knew how to take care of themselves.
He would have protested more, but when she mentioned the name 'Jack', things changed. There was a fear gripping her that her shudder couldn't hide. Jake bit back his words, remembering the figure that had also been on Barbara's mind, so prominently over the last few weeks. This was someone they feared, someone who had hurt them, both of them, and would continue to hurt them as long as he was able.
Jake bit back his cynicism, and nodded. "Okay. If you say so, okay."
Max: She felt a little guilty. Just a little. The kid didn't have any friends? Max gave him sort of a rueful smile and reached down to ruffle his hair. "Sorry." She meant it.
He was cooperating at least, that was good. Max tried to get the stern look off her face. It wasn't much her anyway. Those needed to be left to Babs.
Max ruffled his hair once more before readjusting her bag on her shoulder awkwardly. "Really, costumes aren't that bad. Kate can probably find you a shway one. Her's is awesome."
Jake: Jake rolled his eyes when she ruffled his hair, shaking his head out from under her hand and hiding a grin. "Yeah, yeah," he said. "I'm not wearing tights. And no capes."
He pulled his own bag back on, and Oy trotted to his feet from the street, the plate held carefully in his jaws. He stood up on his back paws and craned his long neck. Jake beamed at the bumbler and picked him up. "Thanks, Oy," he said, sliding the plate securely into his bag, and setting Oy in the main pocket. The bumbler licked his hand. "Oy! Ake! Anks!"
Max: "I'll have you know that some of the most respected teen heroes wear tights," she said mock seriously. Wasn't like she was lying to the kid or anything. Sure those kid heroes usually ended up getting tired of those tights real fast, but they were just so adorable. "And what that matter with capes? Everyone wears capes."
Jake: "Good for them. I'm not wearing any." One hand was in his bag, rubbing Oy behind his ears. "And capes? What's the deal with them anyway? I can think of a hundred ways they'd get in the way."
Max: "Well, Superman's still alive," Max justified. "And so's Batman. Obviously they're not that bad. But fine, I'll tell her no cape. If she agrees, I mean." She still wasn't making any promises, because she wasn't going to argue with Kate over this one. She still had to tell Jesse, and he'd make two people.
And of course it was probably inevitable that someone else in the family would find out eventually, no matter how careful she was.
Jake: Jake chuckled. "Secrets don't stay long anywhere," he said to her. "Especially not in a ka-tet."
"Tet!" echoed Oy.
Max: "You're totally reading my..." Max eyed him, trailing off. It suddenly occurred to her that not only wasn't it good because she just didn't want him reading her mind, but because of what was in her mind.
The secrets. Very many secrets. She could only guess what he'd picked up already. The only thing that could sort of comfort her was the thought that he was living with Babs. Unless she had some super secret mental shield powers that Max didn't know about, Jake had probably picked up just as much from her as well.
Jake: Jake glanced at her, and then turned his face away, frowning. "Sorry," he said. "I don't mean to. I just can't..." He winced. "I don't go any deeper. I know I could, but I don't. I just know... certain things. The important things. The things you feel the strongest about. It's some of both. Thoughts and feelings. And sometimes random things. Like, if I'm trying to find the words, I'll pick them up from you. Short Round. Indiana Jones. I don't know what it is, just that they're connected. And about the ka-tet. I just..."
He felt frustrated. He needed a teacher. Like Cort or Vannay. Roland was his father and mentor, but he didn't know how to teach anything with the Touch. That had been Vannay and Alain's domain, not Roland's. And Roland only barely understood why Jake didn't like to use it.
"I could watch her undressing too," he'd said, when Roland has asked if he could look deeper into Susannah's mind. "But it still wouldn't make it right."
"I'm sorry."
It was another reason he distanced himself from the kids at school. He was different from them. He was older than most of them, older than his eleven years, and still just a child. He was a gunslinger, a savior, of the Line of Eld. Strong in the Touch. He'd seen the Rose, heard it's sweet voice. The Rose that was also the Tower.
And this. Being far more psychic than was good for him. Knowing, all too well, what they thought of him.
Max: "Well... how much do you know?" She didn't know if she was pushing too much, or if this was going to make him feel even more guilty. It was just important to know. While she highly doubted that as of now Jake was going to get abducted for his knowledge of Bruce Wayne's secret identity, it would be nice to know if one that would be a possibility.
Max sighed. "Okay, really, it's okay. I mean, I know you're not doing it on purpose, and maybe you don't know so much about it, like, enough to control what you're doing, but it's just kinda freaky when you pull stuff out like that. Especially when you're... when it's secret personal stuff."
Jake: Jake shrugged. "It's hard to say. I know more when I think about it, when I try to know more. But I know..." He sighed, trying to think of how to phrase it. "I know about the Tet of the Bat." He glanced at her a bit. "And I know more about Jack than you and Babs have told me. I know who he is, and who he was."
Max: "Tet means... family? Clan?" Max was wincing. A lot.
Bruce was going to kill them all. "You got it from Babs?"
Jake: "A tet... a ka-tet, is a group of people whose ka, whose fate is connected." Jake nodded. "Yes. A family of sorts."
He bit his lip, looking up at her. "Mostly, I think I picked it up during that dinner. From Bruce, and Dick, and Babs and you, and Alfred, and Terry.... with all that, it was a little hard to ignore."
Max: "Oh." So it was all their faults. That was a better arrangement and she didn't feel as guilty. Max bit her lip and thought for a second.
She didn't want to insult Jake's intelligence, because she was sure he was a very smart kid, but it had to be said. "You know that you can't say anything about this to anyone, right? 'Specially not about Bruce or Babs."
Jake: Jake grinned. "I may not have read as many comic books as some other kids in my school, Max," he said, chuckling. "But I know a secret when I stumble onto one. No one will hear it from me."
Max: Surprisingly that sort of assured her a little bit, especially since he'd known him for such a short amount of time. It was a weird feeling. "Thanks. It's just... a really big thing," she said with a nod and a tiny smile.
"And this one... the thing with Kate, you couldn't tell Babs, and you'd most likely have to sneak in and out of the house. You seen the booby-traps she's got around the place?" That was another disadvantage he was going to have, she and Kate and a lot more freedom than he did.
Jake: Jake raised his eyebrows. "Some. Maybe not all. Oy sniffed out a few. How many are there?"
Max: : "A lot." Max closed her eyes for a minute and envisioned the house. Having helped install some of the things, she knew where they were, could see it all clearly. "She's in the wheelchair, so she likes her backup protection. There're electrical jolts in the window sills, video cameras, gas... explosives up in her lair in the attic. Better to blow it up then let someone get their hands on the computers."
Jake: Jake frowned. "She puts a lot into those computers, doesn't she?"
Jake didn't trust computers. Not nearly as much as Babs or Max would. he'd seen machines that were far too intelligent, robots that were more lethal than a bullet. No, he didn't trust them.
"I should be able to get past the cameras. The other things..." He shrugged. Ka would provide. Or his Touch. He wasn't a religious boy, not by any stretch, but he still held a certain faith in the ability of things to work out the way they should.
That was ka, after all.
Max: "She does, yeah. I... guess you know about all that?" She looked at him, raising a questioning eyebrow. "It's not like we're dependant on them... much. It's just all very convenient, Y'know?"
Reaching the end of the block, Max stopped briefly and looked across the street before starting across it with Jake. See, she could be a responsible babysitter. No J-walking on her watch. "Just be careful. I'll come around at some point maybe, see what I can sniff out for you. She's really good at what she does."
Jake: "Convenient." Jake raised his own eyebrows. "Sure, it's convenient. Until it develops a consciousness of it's own, and then goes suicidally insane."
It was Blaine he was thinking of. Blaine the Insane Mono. Blaine was a pain, and that was the truth.
Max: "It can happen, except these computers are about forty years behind being able to do that," she smirked at him. "If we were in my time then that'd be a more pressing concern. It's happened before." She wondered for a moment if Zeta would ever end up here.
"Computers aren't all that bad, Short Round. Trust me, living in Babs' place, they're bound to save your life one day." And speaking of Babs' house, it was there, just down the street. One of these days she was going to have to get a car, she decided. That walk had been entirely too long.
Jake: "Thanks for the pep talk, but I think I'll stick to my own instincts for a while. I haven't met a computer yet that I liked."
Nigel hadn't been too bad. But then again, Nigel had reminded him too much of Andy. Andy Messenger Robot, Many Other Functions. Andy, who had sung cradle songs to the same babies he led to a fate worse than slaughter some short years later. Of the way computers drove men to madness. Like the insane Tick-Tock Man,
No, Jake didn't like computers.
"I'd appreciate the help," he said, glancing up at Max. "Babs is good. I'd hate to miss something she placed."
Max: "Yeah, you might end up getting your foot blown off, and that'd suck. Or get blinded by some weird gas from the Amazon. Something like that." Okay, she was embellishing just a little, but one never knew with Babs.
Max slipped her arm around Jake's shoulder as the approached the house. "So, the deal. I talk to Kate and you're a good boy and don't say anything to her while you wait for me to get back to you?"
Jake: "Eal!"
Oy barked the response for both of them, and Jake laughed. "Hey, if he says so, I guess it's a deal."
From: i_playthecello Date: 06/27/2006 16:58:02
*glee* *ahem* Kate: Oh my god we have our very own Bucky ...